The Ministry of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia and the IUCN Programme Office for the Southern Caucasus have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that sets out the framework of their future collaboration.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mr. Samvel Amirkhanyan, Head of the Administration of the Ministry, and Mr. Ramaz Gokhelashvili, IUCN South Caucasus Director, at the occasion of the launch of Armenia’s second National Environmental Action Plan on 17 December, 2008. It covers collaboration between the Ministry and IUCN on a wide range of fields, including strengthening the national protected areas system in Armenia, developing the national biodiversity monitoring system and the National Red List of Threatened Species, and improving the coherent and effective implementation of biodiversity-related international conventions to which Armenia is Party.

Following the signing ceremony, Mr. Gokhelashvili underlined the great importance of the agreement to IUCN: “Armenia is a crucial part of the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot, and IUCN therefore has a strong interest in supporting biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resource management here. We have already supported trainings on IUCN’s Red List Methodology and other activities in Armenia, and we are confident that the new MoU will allow us to move our collaboration to a new level. This will enable us to jointly add to the achievements that have already been made for the benefit of Armenia’s unique biodiversity.”